Bankers meet with homeowners trying to refinance

By Rob Varnon, STAFF WRITER

Published 12:51 am, Tuesday, September 1, 2009

BRIDGEPORT -- After almost two years of fighting foreclosure and several hours of waiting Friday, the Davis family, of Bridgeport, walked out of a meeting with Wells Fargo bankers with only a pledge that someone would call.

"Nothing," Sandra Davis said, when asked what happened in her meeting that was part of a foreclosure prevention program at Housatonic Community College. She said she and her husband, Curtis, provided the Wells Fargo representatives with information, but were told the mortgage was held by Wells Fargo Trust, a different division, and that someone would contact them.

Still, Sandra Davis remained optimistic the family will be able to keep the house they've owned since 1998. And there may be reason for hope: their foreclosure was dismissed on July 11 after Wells Fargo failed to prove it held the note before it started foreclosure proceedings in 2007, a year the state experienced one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation.

At Friday's event, people sat in the foyer of the college for hours, waiting their turn to speak with lenders representing seven banks.

"They were already lined up this morning," said Joan Carty, executive director of the Housing Development Fund, a nonprofit organization that organized Friday's event. By noon, more than 100 people had registered to see lenders.

Carty's group, with offices in Bridgeport, Danbury and Stamford, is pressing banks and lawmakers to streamline the refinancing process. Most of the people Friday were carrying folders thick with personal information and letters from their mortgage servicers.

"It's important to know that you can succeed," Carty said.

One of the busiest banks at HCC Friday was Wells Fargo, which took over Wachovia's business in the residential real estate market.

Don Vecchio, a Wells Fargo spokesman, said that despite what appears to be a slow process, his bank has modified 240,000 mortgages in the first seven months of this year.

Ken and Gay Maise of Stamford said it was the first time they had spoken with a Wells Fargo representative.

"They didn't even read our hardship numbers," said Ken Maise, who is on long-term disability because of cancer and uses a wheelchair. His wife, a real estate agent, has seen her income cut dramatically this year. It means their mortgage, which took up 31 percent of their income, now eats up 55 percent of their income. They remain current on their mortgage.

To keep up with payments, they've borrowed against their life insurance, Ken Maise said. But the pair are hopeful, and credited the Housing Development Fund for its support.

Michaela Petrini drove to HCC from Danbury in the morning and waited more than two hours to see a banker. Her husband has had a medical issue, reducing their income and making it difficult to pay the mortgage.

Carty said the process to refinance is complicated because a lot of at-risk loans were issued without proper documentation and now banks must find that information. Through much of the decade some lenders were not requiring full-income verification before issuing loans, and now banks that took over those companies' portfolios are trying to verify borrowers have enough income to support a loan.

One of those complicated cases is Bridgeport resident Sonia Kirkland's.

She said her son, Luis Velez Jr., is serving in the Army and is the mortgage-holder for a home financed in 2006, And while Sonia is not on the mortgage, she is on the deed, and hasn't been able to get the loan modified, despite working with nine different housing counselors, some of whom charged her fees.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who attended the event, told Kirkland to call his office's attorney to help recover fees paid. Blumenthal and Carty warned that homeowners should never pay fees to try to modify their mortgage.

Kirkland, who's been fighting cancer for about a year, has been told she doesn't earn enough to qualify for a modification.

When she was finally called in to meet with Bank of America representatives after several hours of waiting, she was told they would like to keep her out of foreclosure.